


i'll start the car but we'll stay in park

by fortunehasgivenup



Series: prompt fills [1]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drabble, F/M, Prompt Fill, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:21:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22350973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortunehasgivenup/pseuds/fortunehasgivenup
Summary: Rio drives Beth home.
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio
Series: prompt fills [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608919
Comments: 21
Kudos: 147





	i'll start the car but we'll stay in park

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from hereliesbethboland: Beth riding in Rio’s car for the first time.

Rio rubs the bridge of his nose. “Just get in the car, Elizabeth.”

Beth crosses her arms over her chest and glares him down. “Seriously? That’s how you’re going to play this?”

“Yes,” he snaps, dropping his hand. “Now, unless you want to walk home, get in the fucking car.”

“And who’s going to deal with this?” Beth scowls at her van. Which currently only has one tire that hasn’t been shot out.

“I’ll get someone to come tow it to a garage,” he says. “Now hurry up. I got shit to do.”

Finally accepting that riding with Rio is the better choice, Beth opens the van to grab her purse, phone, Jane’s blanket, Kenny’s soccer cleats, Danny’s Game Boy and -

“Jesus, Elizabeth,” Rio groans. “No one’s going to steal your little girl’s sweater.”

“It’s Emma’s favourite,” Beth shoots back as she carries an armload of things towards Rio’s car. “Backseat or trunk?”

He winces, then goes around to the back of the car and pops the trunk. She dumps everything in, then organizes it a bit better as Rio pushes his stuff aside. Apparently he keeps a blanket in the trunk in addition to a massive first aid kit and some pillows.

“Marcus falls asleep if he’s in the car for longer than five minutes,” Rio explains even without her asking. 

Beth smiles at that. Danny had been the same when he was younger. Sometimes he still nodded off on the drive home from school. 

“Even if you have the fun music on?” Beth teases.

“The fun music?” Rio steps back and shuts the trunk. “What’s that?”

She’s not sure if he’s being serious or not, so she explains. “Disney, oldies, anything you can sing along to.”

“We’re not a singing family,” Rio says as he gets into the driver’s seat. Beth has to adjust the passenger’s seat so that she isn’t so far back, even though she sees him cringe. 

“Safety first, Rio.”

“Uh huh,” he drawls. “Whatever you say.”

Beth buckles herself in and takes the chance to look around the interior of the car. It’s impeccably clean. Absolutely nothing inside reveals anything about who owns the car.

“Is Marcus even allowed to drink water in this car?” Beth asks.

Rio snorts. “He can have water.”

“Anything other than water?” Beth presses.

“It’s not like we’re going on road trips,” he replies. 

“Rio,” she sighs, “you are too in love with your car.” She leans forward to open the dashboard compartment. There’s a driver’s manual, a smaller first aid kit, and two extra cell phones. She turns to look at him.

“What?” Rio says, pulling onto a busier road. “You know what I do.”

Beth reaches in to push things around, looking for anything hidden. Maybe he’s got a granola bar or a juice box somewhere in this car. Nothing.

“And I don’t give a fuck about the car,” he goes on. “Whether I’m driving this one or another, what matters is that Marcus knows to respect it.”

“So you’re saying that if I put him in my car with my kids and handed him a juice box and some crackers - the really crumbly kind - he’d turn them down?” Beth shuts the compartment and leans back again. 

“In your car?” Rio laughs softly. “He’d understand that he’s allowed to squeeze the whole juice box out onto the seat and you wouldn’t care.”

“Because they’re kids!” Beth protests. “They make mistakes!”

“Yeah,” Rio agreed, “and then they learn how to clean ‘em up.”

Beth looks at his profile as he drives. It’s dark outside, so there's just the occasional street lamp or a pair of headlights that cast harsh beams onto his face, letting her see the sharp planes of him. 

“Or maybe your kids don’t know how to do that,” he says, his voice turning caustic. “Maybe they’re like daddy and they just do whatever the fuck they want because mama’s gonna pick up the mess.”

Beth stiffens. “You don’t know anything about -“

“You keep letting ‘em do that, Elizabeth,” he cuts her off, “you’re gonna have a houseful of Dean Bolands.”

“Oh, is my Gang Boss giving me parenting advice now?” 

He inhales sharply, then lets it out slowly. “If I thought you’d listen to it, yeah.”

Beth wants to say something in response, but she stops herself. From what she can see, he is a good dad when he has his son. Rio gives him attention, teaches him how to wait for his turn, but also to stand up for himself. The few times that she’d spoken to him at the park with Rhea, he had been sweet and Jane seemed to think that he’d put the stars in the sky.

So instead, she turns away, leans her head against the cold glass of the window, and watches her surroundings grow more familiar as his words burrow a little deeper in her gut.

Finally, they’re at the house.

Rio turns off the car. “I’ll get the van brought here once the tires are replaced.”

“Do I just pay by cheque?” she asks as she undoes the seatbelt.

“Nah.” She looks at him again. His head is against the backrest, but he’s turned his face towards her, looking at her lazily. “My fault your tires got shot out. I’ll cover it.”

“Thank you,” Beth says. “For that and the ride home.”

“You’re a good mom.”

That throws her and her hand stops, hovering just over the door latch. “What?”

“You’re a good mom,” he repeats. “And your kids aren’t going to stop knowing that if you make ‘em take some responsibility for themselves and their actions. But you don’t do that, they’re not gonna know how much they can affect other people.”

Beth’s mind flashes to Kenny using all the money she had given him to buy himself an ice cream, leaving Jane without any. To Jane running away to call attention to herself. 

“That’s not your business.”

“Yeah, well you’re my business. Makes ‘em my business,” Rio tells her. “They’re gonna have to learn sooner or later that Mommy can’t fix everything. Especially not if Mommy’s the one that gets hurt. What if you’d gone back to that house looking for that stupid fucking blanket?” 

His jaw tenses as he glances down.

“You would have wound up dead,” he says quietly. “Tell yourself something else if it makes you feel better, but it’s true.”

“What happened?” Beth asks what she’s been dying to know for months. “When you went back?”

Rio turns his head away, looking out the front windshield. “I got your blanket back. Rest ain’t your department.”

“That’s it?”

“Get out off my car, Elizabeth.”

He says it without any real venom. It’s more teasing than anything. She knows that it was more than that. But whatever he’d done, apparently he doesn’t want her to know. 

She opens the car door. “You in a rush to get anywhere?” Beth asks.

Rio jerks a bit.

“Dean has the kids,” she says, not making a move to get out yet. “I was going to have a drink.” He’s facing her again, but he hasn’t made any other move. “It might be nice to have company.”

“Yeah?”

Beth nods.

“You gonna try to make me a fucking sandwich again?” Rio asks.

She flushes. Not her proudest moment. “Not unless you want one.”

He laughs, then he’s undoing his seatbelt too. “Not much of a sandwich guy,” he tells her for the second time. “But -“ he opens his door, “I wouldn’t say no to whatever sweets you got stashed in your cupboards.”

Beth smiles, relieved by his answer. Pleased by it. “I made muffins. Berry crumble.” With that, she gets out of the car, slamming the door behind her. The sound is echoed a second later by Rio’s door. He catches up to her before they reach the door, but he makes no move to touch her. Doesn’t say a thing. 

It isn’t one of his heavy silences, the ones that Beth finds herself stumbling to fill. It’s gentle, like he’s just content to be. Like he isn’t trying to pick her apart or outplay her. 

And it’s nice.

**Author's Note:**

> In an attempt to make myself write things that aren't always 10k+, I'm taking prompts on tumblr (or on here if you prefer). They will all be unbeta'd, so all mistakes are mine and I'll be uploading them as a series rather than chapters because seeing that 1/? is stressful. I'm still working on all my other stuff as well, so most of those should be updating soon.
> 
> Title from Jimmy Eat World's Night Drive because I really love that song.
> 
> As always, if there's something you think should be warned for, please let me know.


End file.
